Closing arguments in Kelowna murder trial expected today

Closing arguments in the trial of a Kelowna man accused of fatally stabbing his friend while preparing for a baby shower are expected to get underway this morning.

Chad Alphonse is charged with second degree murder for the March 11, 2016 death of Waylon Percy Jackson.

Through two weeks of testimony, Crown counsel David Grabavac has outlined the last moments of Jackson’s life.

Alphonse, the jury was told, was among four people who had been invited to Jackson’s house that night to help prepare for a baby shower for his youngest child. As the night came to an end, however, things went fatally awry.

Jackson had gone to sleep with his common-law wife and mother of two children Naomi Foureyes in an upstairs bedroom when he heard his sister in law and Alphonse arguing.

The two men started fighting and Jackson hit Alphonse over the head with a steel chair, Foureyes testified.

Foureyes told jurors that Jackson had dropped the chair and was walking to her and their infant daughter, as though he was going to say something, when he was stabbed.

Defense lawyer Terry La Liberté suggested an alternate theory.

He directed Foureyes’s attention to photos of the counter at her house, where a machete shaped knife was sitting.

He asked if it was possible Jackson was walking toward that knife, which Foureyes said he’d shown “the boys” earlier in the night.

She said that she didn’t believe that to be the case. Regardless, Jackson didn’t make it to either destination.

RCMP testified that Jackson was found in a sitting position, leaning against kitchen cupboards slumped to the left. He was not wearing a shirt and his eyes were open.

RCMP observed a lot of blood and had a large stab wound under left arm.

Jurors were told that Jackson suffered several wounds from the altercation, including an “S” shaped slash on his shoulder and two stab wounds under his left arm. The fatal wound was from when the knife entered his chest cavity, punctured through the upper lobe of his lung and sliced through the left ventricle of the heart.